A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews! I'm so happy that so many people enjoy this story : )
As a side note, I'd like to add that I am not at all familiar with the geography of London, or England at all, for that matter. I think I mentioned in one of earlier chapters that you might have to...suspend your disbelief when you are reading about places Harry and co. might be going, if you live in England or London or have knowledge of those areas. Even "exploring" the country on the internet would not be helpful for me, lol, I am extremely bad with directions and maps. It's a major weakness. But, anyways, thanks for your patience regarding that. Haha.
P.S. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling...especially the scenes that happened at the World Cup that I describe. Just throwing the characters into the same situation and writing about it.
After Harry's birthday, the summer continued to pass by without much happening. He kept a countdown of the days until the Quidditch World Cup, which he was looking forward to more than anything. The summer was quickly drawing to a close, and Harry knew that soon they'd have to go to Diagon Alley, although it seemed they were putting it off until after the Cup, and then he'd be going back to Hogwarts. As the days and weeks went by, he found himself feeling very strange about it all. Last year, the countdown on his wall would be the days left until his next term at Hogwarts, or until he would be going to stay with the Weasleys. But he was starting to feel sad about school starting, something that had never ever happened to him before, but was what he imagined happened to a lot of the students at Hogwarts. Most people didn't want summer holidays to end.
It wasn't that he didn't miss the castle or miss doing magic, or being with his friends all the time. But now he had a home. He had someone who looked after him and cared for him and a place to call his own. He was confused, flip flopping between excitement at the new term and sharp feelings of sadness about leaving Sirius behind when it all began. He wondered if his parents had ever felt sad about leaving home to go back to Hogwarts. If Aunt Petunia was as mean to his mother as she had been to Harry, than he doubted she minded going back to school.
However, he found his confusion shoved on the back burner as the Quidditch World Cup drew nearer. Before he knew it, it was the night before the match. Harry, always a last minute packer, had just finished throwing some clothes into a knapsack and he went downstairs to find Sirius double checking to make sure they had everything ready for the morning. Harry threw himself down on the couch and looked at the ceiling.
Sirius smiled at him, "Well, you're a free man tomorrow, Harry Potter...what are you going to do first?" He was officially ungrounded the next day, and he couldn't be any happier about it.
"Uhm, I donno...probably go watch some Quidditch or something," he said offhandedly, tossing an old Rememberall that was on the coffee table up in the air and catching it again.
"Oh, that's right...the World Cup's tomorrow...guess we should go, we've had the tickets for ages." Sirius said with a wink. "You better get going to bed soon, we've gotta be up bright and early to meet the Weasleys at the nearest portkey. It's 9 o'clock already, dawn will be here before you know it." Sirius said, checking his watch.
"Yeah, yeah," Harry said, wondering how he was going to sleep tonight.
It turned out that the way he was going to sleep was poorly. He laid awake in excitement for most of the night, and tossed and turned when he did fall asleep. It seemed as if he'd just closed his eyes and finally relaxed when Sirius was knocking on his bedroom door, shouting, "Wake up call!" For a few minutes, he refused to give up, and it took another knock on his door for him to slowly roll out of bed. He shuffled to his closet, pulled on some clothes, and grabbed his knapsack. Sirius had made breakfast downstairs, and they ate quickly and relatively quietly. Sirius tried to talk to Harry, but he was so tired he just didn't respond. An hour later, the pair had set off for the portkey.
Once they'd gotten to the field and were walking, Harry started to wake up and get in a better mood. The bright sunshine and stretching his legs and put him in a better mood, and they arrived around the portkey shortly before Ron, Hermione, Arthur, Fred, George and Ginny.
"Are you excited?" Sirius asked, seeing that it was finally okay to talk again because Harry had a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah, sorry I was a jerk this morning. I didn't really sleep last night, I was too excited." Harry said, feeling a bit like a little kid, but Sirius just shrugged his shoulders. Another couple of minutes, and they saw the Weasley's and Hermione walking up over the hill.
"Morning, all!" Arthur Weasley called with a wave. Ron looked the way Harry did, so he settled for giving him a smile, which Ron reluctantly returned with a yawn.
"Morning, Harry." Ron said quietly, stifling another yawn. "It's too bloody early, honestly, if we could Apparate things would be much easier, we'd still be sleeping." he said bitterly.
"Oh, shut up, Ron, stop complaining, at least we're going to the World Cup! This is amazing!" Hermione said happily, giving Harry a quick hug.
"Alright everyone, time to get going. Gather around quickly, touch the boot." Sirius said, indicating the portkey which had started to glow. Harry had never traveled by portkey before, but Sirius had explained to him what it was a few days ago, so he knew what to do. Less than a minute later, they all landed on the ground, Sirius and Arthur much more gracefully than the younger ones. They all stood up, brushed themselves off, and Harry's eyes widened at the sights before him. There were hundreds and hundreds of tents everywhere, and magic being performed everywhere. It was amazing. Before he knew it, he, Sirius, Hermione and the Weasleys had found the places where their were tents were supposed to be set up.
An hour later, Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting around the table in Harry and Sirius's tent, which was much calmer than the Weasley's. Fred and George were generally very loud people, and even though Arthur had tried to get the twins to calm down, they were walking around the tent placing bets loudly and just being pretty annoying. Sirius was busy making up some sandwiches for lunch.
The rest of the day went by quickly, as the trio walked around the campground, talking to people from school that they knew and taking in all the sights. Before they knew it, it was time to head to their seats for the game to start. As they walked, Sirius laid a hand on Harry's shoulder and said quietly to him, "Stay close to me, I don't want you to get lost."
"I'm fine, Sirius," Harry said, mentally rolling his eyes but not wanting to do it physically and hurt his feelings. Sometimes he wondered if Sirius knew he was being slightly overprotective, or if he didn't notice. Regardless, he knew he might as well stick close to him and make him feel good.
They finally got to their seats and sat down. They were up rather high in the Top Box, but they were excellent seats and they had a fantastic view of everything that was going on. As soon as the match began, Harry was completely enthralled. Watching a game of Quidditch was one thing, but this was different-this was amazing. He wanted to be those people out there, and he wondered what it was like, under all those hot lights while practically the entire Wizarding world watched you, and either rooted for you to win or prayed for you to fail. He was used to being watched by many people while he was Seeker, but never anywhere near this amount.
The match flew by, faster than he had expected it to. Surprisingly, what Fred and George had predicted to happen did-Viktor Krum of Bulgaria caught the Snitch, but Ireland still won, 170-160. It was fantastic, and everyone continued to celebrate well into the night, rehashing the excitement over the game. After a while, however, it was Arthur who yawned loudly and said, "Alright, you lot, I think it's about time we all start getting some sleep."
Everyone protested, including Harry, but Sirius said, "Arthur's right, it's been a long day but we'll be leaving in the morning and you need to get a little bit of rest." Grudgingly, Harry went with his godfather, saying good night to everyone as they went into their tent. It turned out that Sirius had been right-he was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was in the middle of a dream where he was chasing the Snitch against Krum...his hand was outstretched, he was going to get it, he would be the winner of the Cup...when suddenly the screams from the audience changed from excitement to fear, and he was shaken awake by Sirius.
"Harry! Wake up, we have to go! There's a riot going on!"
He stumbled out of his bed and stuck his head outside the tent. He saw a bunch of masked people walking around, and they were levitating unconscious people in the air. Everyone was running around screaming, and there were small fires burning all over. Harry shrank back into the tent away from it, wanting to un-see everything. Suddenly, all of the Weasley's and Hermione were inside of their tent. Ginny was crying, and everyone else looked between scared and upset.
"Sirius. We have to try and stop this. The Death Eaters have all of the Muggles and they're torturing them. We have to go and help them." Sirius reluctantly nodded. "Right," Arthur turned to all of the kids, giving Ginny a tight hug as he did so, "I want all of you to go and hide yourselves. Fred, George, stick close to Ginny. Keep her safe. All of you, keep safe. We'll come and find you as soon as we can. Let's go," Arthur said to Sirius.
But Sirius was looking at Harry with an odd expression on his face. He didn't want to leave him, he didn't want to send him off into the night without him, into a battle field with a group of underage wizards like himself, even if they all were very good friends. He wanted to get out of here now. He knew it was his duty to do what he could to help the situation, but this was hard. He hugged Harry tightly. "Please stick together and please be safe. Please. I'll come get you as soon as I can."
"I will," Harry muttered, hugging Sirius back. Arthur gave all of his kids quick hugs and then everyone was off.
In the midst of all the chaos and confusion, Harry, Ron and Hermione turned around after running for a few minutes to see that they'd lost Fred, George and Ginny. "Great!" Ron exclaimed, "where've they gone off to? We're doomed."
"Look! Let's go hide in there," Hermione said pointing towards the woods straight ahead. They moved quickly and pushed themselves deep into the woods. Harry impulsively felt for his wand and realized that it wasn't in his pocket.
"My wand's gone!" He yelled, and Hermione shushed him. "Where did it go? I had it when we left the tent!"
"It's okay, Harry, we'll find it," she said in a slightly unconvincing voice but Harry was starting to panic. He suddenly felt very unsafe without his wand, and he wanted it back. Even though they weren't allowed to do magic outside of school, he needed it in case of an emergency. However, he kept moving deeper into the woods with his friends, his promise to Sirius that he would keep himself safe ringing in his ears. They eventually saw a clearing, very deep inside, where they all mutually agreed they should go to. However, shortly before they reached it, they heard a man's voice yell out an incantation, something they were unable to completely make out, and a dark green skull erupted into the sky, encircled by a giant snake that went through its mouth.
Harry had no idea what it meant, but they all gasped, especially when they heard the loud crack around them of people Apparating into the forest, and they saw stunning spells being shot in each direction. "Get down!" he yelled, shoving his friends down as a spell shot by their heads.
"Who's there?" They heard an unfamiliar voice call out, one of the men who had Apparated into the clearing after the mark had been shot into the sky. The trio remained silent, unsure of whether or not they should give themselves away, when they heard a familiar voice that made them relax immediately.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione!" It was Sirius, he was running towards them and he helped them all to their feet. "Are you three alright?" He asked worriedly.
"Black? Sirius Black?" The same mysterious voice said as he finally walked over to them. He was holding two wands, and Harry's eyes lit on the one.
"My wand!" He yelled, going over and taking it from the man's hand.
"Potter, did you conjure the Dark Mark? Did you?" The man asked, pointing his wand at Harry suddenly. "Or was it one of you?" He asked, glaring at Ron and Hermione, who shrank back behind Sirius.
"Get your wand away from my godson, Crouch!" Sirius yelled, sticking his own wand in the man's face and standing in front of Harry. "You honestly think that Harry Potter would conjure the Dark Mark? Or one of these two 14 year old wizards? This is advanced Dark magic, Barty Crouch, and you know it. Leave them alone."
Barty Crouch looked at the three frightened young wizards and Sirius's angry face, and lowered his wand, appearing to see reason. He knew that they hadn't done this, but then, who could it have been? The next moment, Arthur Weasley appeared behind them, Fred, George and Ginny following his wake.
"What's going on? Barty? Did you catch the one who conjured that?" Arthur asked, gesturing towards the sky.
"No, he didn't, but he's been very quick to blame our kids," Sirius said, continuing to glare at Crouch.
"You can't possibly believe that these three could be capable of...of that!" Arthur said in indignation, putting his arm around Ron.
"No, but it is very suspicious that these three are at the scene of the crime, and Harry Potter's wand is the one that made the Dark Mark." Crouch said darkly.
Harry had no idea what was going on anymore. Ever since Sirius had showed up and he'd gotten his wand back, he'd felt much safer and had been able to relax a little bit. Not much, but a bit, and he was suddenly very, very tired. He wanted to be back in their tent, or, better yet, back at Grimmauld Place in his own warm bed. He leaned against Sirius, who put his arm around Harry tightly.
"Come on, we're done with this. Let's go back to the tents, everyone," Sirius said firmly, and they all started to head back, Harry sticking closely to his side for once.
The campground, which had been so perfect and meticulously planned out earlier in the day, was in ruins. Many tents were still smoldering, and there were a lot of people still hurrying around, although all traces of Death Eaters were gone. Everything was a mess, a disaster, and Harry's heart broke as they walked back. Once they all had arrived back at their tents, which were mercifully unharmed, Sirius said to Arthur, "Think we should try and get a little bit of sleep before catching the first portkey out of here in the morning?"
"Absolutely. I'm sure Molly's out of her mind with worry, we should get home quickly." Arthur said seriously. The Weasley's all disappeared into their tent, Hermione following them. She had stayed in Harry's tent earlier, but on the way back Ginny had asked her to bunk in with her. She was still obviously very frightened about the whole ordeal.
Sirius and Harry went back into their own tent. "I know it'll be hard, but try and get a little bit of sleep. We'll be out of here first thing in the morning." Harry suddenly threw his arms around Sirius, who squeezed him back.
"I was scared," Harry said in a low voice, more than slightly embarrassed.
"I know. I know," Sirius said quietly. "I didn't want to leave you. I shouldn't have."
"It's okay," Harry muttered.
"No, it's not. I shouldn't have, we had no idea what we were dealing with, what we were sending you all out to hide from. If something had happened to you, Harry, I never would have forgiven myself."
"I didn't know if I'd see you again, and then my wand was gone and I had no idea where it was or where we were and then the mark in the sky, and that Crouch guy..." Harry was speaking rapidly, his words tumbling over each other as he relived the fear he'd had as he and his friends had hid. "I'm being stupid, I'm 14 years old, I shouldn't be acting like a baby."
Sirius looked at him and smile a little. "You're 14, not 40. You had every right to be scared. Come on, it's okay. Let's get a little bit of sleep and we'll be gone in the morning. We'll put this behind us."
A/N: By the way, just a heads up, school is starting soon...so I won't be able to update as much :[ But I will when I can!